“I have now finished my first sand bag dome…well almost. It was a great experience, however lonely, as I moved over 25 tonnes of sand by hand, mixed it with cement and put it in the bags myself. I am excitedly happy with the result thus far. The dome was built at a significant Aboriginal … Read more
The idea presented here is for Haiti and other areas susceptible to earthquakes. It’s a very simple concept, but even small steps like this one can save lives. The main idea involves reinforcing corners of earthbag buildings with plastic mesh or plastic fencing. For background information, see my previous post on Low Cost Reinforcement of … Read more
Sometimes incremental changes are the most effective. People are naturally resistant to major changes, but they’ll more readily grasp and utilize small changes. That’s the thinking behind this confined masonry/earthbag system. Confined masonry is one of the most common building systems in the world, with millions of structures built this way. Confined masonry construction consists … Read more
A new article by Arvid Linde in Green Home Design compares typical earth-sheltered homes with structures made of earthbags. Linde raises a number of interesting points. I agree with his assessment that most earth-sheltered designs contain a lot of high embodied energy materials, notably concrete and steel, and therefore are not as ‘green’ as they … Read more
This fine project is by Jesse Loving in Bullet Tree Falls, Belize. The content below is from his Picasa photo album. He has lots of great photos. Take a look. Or see the project page we created about it. In planning to build an earthbag house in Belize, Central America, I decided to first … Read more
Certain types of soil for earthbag fill material may be available for free or dirt cheap. Excavation companies typically want to empty their trucks as quickly as possible to reduce labor and trucking costs. Ask them for ‘clean fill dirt,’ which is low cost soil free of debris. It’s best to avoid problem soils such … Read more